Kerala Trip Part 5 - Thekkady

Day 4 (contnd)

Links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

From the houseboat, we headed for Thekkady. The journey was uphill and the scenery was beautiful with mountains, tress and tea estates as went along. The 3 1/2 journey was peaceful and non-eventful

Once we reached Thekkady, we checked in at our hotel and had a quick lunch there. Here, each room has been designed as a cottage and I loved the idea very much :). Here are some shots of the hotel that we stayed in

And they had Jhulaas and merry go rounds for the kids as well. Such a lovely thought, isn't it ? But we didn't have time to let Jillu play then as we had to hurry for the boat cruise in the Periyar Wild life sanctuary. We wanted to take the 2:00 PM boat trip but by the time we reached there, the booking was closed for the 2:00Pm slot. So we had to wait for the next trip at 4:00 Pm.

Inside the sanctuary near by the lake

And the boat we were about to take. We got a seat in the upper deck, fortunately

Jillu refused to wear the life jacket. No amount of persuasion and cajoling helped. In the end we let it be.

And then, once the cruise began, initially we didn't spot anything. And then, far away, we could spot lots of deer and wild buffalo. We were told that we would be very lucky if we saw elephants, but that didn't look like happening. And then just as the boat was about to start the return journey, the guide pointed to a direction and there far away into the jungle, there were exactly 5 elephants :)
I was glad we had paid the video camera fees and taken it with us,as without it we could not have spotted anything. The camera zoom was not sufficient and the video camera acted as a binocular for us. So i dont have any pics of any of the animals that we spotted. I am yet to download the videos from the disc :(.

And then, after the boating, we went to a Kalari show. To say, I was amazed is an understatement. The show was really superb and we marvelled at their skill. Here are some of the pics that I managed to click. They were so fast that its a wonder that i caught some of these...

And look at this guy trying to pick up the flower with his mouth

And there, he caught it

And a guy jumped through these fire hooks. I couldn't time the shot right

We came out zapped and amazed at the performance.

And then, after a mini shopping of spices and dinner, we went back to the hotel for the night.

Day 5 :

We got up early next morning and then Jillu was thrilled when we allowed her to play in the jhoola and merry go around in the hotel :)

And then after breakfast (Jillu didn't have much :( ) we packed our bags and left for Munnar

To be continued..